15 Household Names To Sell Right Away

Is the U.S. going to take military action on Syria now that our Secretary of State claims the country’s government is responsible for the recent chemical weapons attack near Damascus?

That’s the question on everyone’s mind in Washington—as well as on Wall Street. The Dow fell over 170 points Tuesday[1] on fears of a U.S.-led military strike while oil prices surged to a six-month high. Meanwhile, several key emerging market currencies got hammered—the Indian rupee once again fell to a record low against the dollar.

While I can’t say for sure how things will play out in the political arena, my expert opinion is that this will continue to make the markets volatile in the days to come. As investors, there’s no time to waste.

Want to know my take on how to navigate the potentially choppy trading action to come? Trim your portfolio of all dead weight. I’m talking about all of the companies that have announced mixed earnings results or have sloppy guidance looking forward. Of course, it can be tedious reviewing the latest earnings results for each of your companies, so I’ve broken down the top 15 big blue chips that you should steer clear of.

AA

Alcoa

F

C

Strong Sell

ABX

Barrick Gold

F

F

Strong Sell

BHI

Baker Hughes

F

D

Strong Sell

CAJ

Canon

F

C

Sell

CVX

Chevron

F

C

Sell

CXO

Concho Resources

F

D

Strong Sell

DD

E.I. DuPont de Nemours

D

C

Sell

DVN

Devon Energy

F

C

Sell

JCP

J.C. Penney

F

D

Strong Sell

NEM

Newmont Mining

F

F

Strong Sell

NSC

Norfolk Southern

F

C

Sell

NUE

Nucor

D

D

Sell

POT

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan

F

C

Strong Sell

TLM

Talisman Energy

F

D

Strong Sell

VOD

Vodafone

D

C

Sell

To wrap up, the best thing you can do to prepare (and to weather the current choppy trading activity) is invest solely in companies with the best earnings prospects. Of course, the best place to start is to run your portfolio through my Portfolio Grader screening tool[2]. It doesn’t take much to see that sticking to A- and B-rated stocks pays off big in the long run[3].